Productivity Improvement Through Line Balancing in the Assembly Area of a Lighting Manufacturing Company in the Philippines

Abstract: One of the important aspects of business efficiency is to reduce cycle time and eliminate idle time in the production. Optimum cycle time can be determined using the line balancing techniques. Line balancing supports optimal layout that helps in reducing processing time by eliminating non value added activities. In a lighting manufacturing company in the Philippines, line balancing is used in the assembly line of 25A – 19A of clear household lamps. This is used as a production line technique in every station to have an equal amount of workload and equal cycle time to diminish bottlenecks and reduced idle time. However, the current operation process still cannot meet the standards set by the management. Thus study aims to establish a standard operating procedures for a lighting manufacturing company to achieve a balanced line and improve their rate of efficiency. Time study was used to identify the average cycle time per process and Westing House System was used to determine the standard process time per workstation. Eliminating the idle time and minimizing the number of the workstation can make the number of outputs per task or station balanced and increase their rate of efficiency. After using a simulation application to test the proposed solution to the problem, it is recommended that the company should use simplify and combine task elements that can be merged to improve the efficiency rate in the assembly line.
Keywords: Cycle Time, Line Balancing, Productivity Improvement, Time Study, Westing House System
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